Laurier rallying the kinfolk, CFP-arty crashers, and GRUFF insights, Vol. 1.
Laurier rallying the kinfolk, CFP-arty crashers, and GRUFF insights, Vol. 1.
In the latest desperate attempt to publish regularly, bienvenue / welcome to some Sunday night slotbacking. Call this an attempt to wring 'Fan Zen' from a folklorin' long football weekend.
If symbolism has any hope left, the Michael Faulds-guided Laurier Golden Hawks will need to drive north for a Vanier Cup victory in 4½ weeks’ time.
As in the north end zone at Richardson Stadium in Kingston. That end zone of the Queen’s Golden Gaels and Michael Faulds got well-acquainted during his early coaching career at Laurier and in his days as a record-setting, universally respected quarterback for another purple-hued Canadian football team that is based in London, Otnario. Some were defining moments, others just stuff that happened along his upward climb through the unlimited motion football arts.
It is all a tapestry woven through the football FabricLAND. You are singing the jingle right now, admit it.
First — an editor’s note; there are editors in Canada?
Sager, if you wanted to write about the ‘fabric’ of football, from a Canadian point of view, it should just be called The Rourke Report. The sexy results right now are coming from the Indiana Hoosiers QB1, Kurtis Rourke, from Oakville, Ontario — two towns over from Hamilton.
Indiana is ranked No. 13 and is 7-0 for only the second time. They have scored 40 or more points in six games in a row. Rourke is right up there with Arch Manning of Texas, as the #1 efficient passer in the country.1 Write about that! Cheers, Ainsley.
Response to an editor’s note
Dear Ainsley, thank you for the note, for unwittingly pointing out ALL football is Canadian-coded. Surely, you know Arch Manning’s head coach at Texas, Scott Sarkisian, was once a QB for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
So, it’s about Laurier kindling something.
And now, this fall, Laurier is No. 1 in the U Sports football rankings. The Fauldsy bunch, and quarterback Taylor Elgersma, announced their presence with authority five weeks ago.
On Sept. 14 they had an early statement win against Faulds’ alma mater, the Western Mustangs, dealing Western its first regular-season loss in an unaffected-by-COVID season since 2016. Seeing that scoreline — Laurier 43, Western 28 — sent a shockwave, through… well, it did not. Some people at my brother Shawn’s surprise 40th birthday party, mostly Kingston folk, got it through the power of context, i.e., knowing ‘the other Sager brother’ is a ginger weirdo about obscure sports.
Thus enabled, plot elements seem to be landing in a perfect spiral. Light as a feather and laces up in the steady hands of receivers who have sped and slipped behind coverage. Of course, Laurier likely has to defeat Western again. No OUA team has taken down Western twice in a season since 2014 — and the team who did failed to make it out of Ontario play, let alone win the Vanier Cup. If you run in any circle that the TSN play-by-player Marshall Ferguson runs in, ask him, but ask a follow-up about the defensive stars.2
The Vanier Cup game is in Kingston on Nov. 23. This might be a postseason where the Vanier and the two competition spots for our national championship game are really up for grabs, instead of the domain of three or four teams who have been dominant the last decade-plus.
Rule No. 1!
The first rule of following ‘Uni Throwball’ is to know who plays on Semifinal Saturday in mid-November for the get-go. It semi-halfway determines whether it is a go-for-it season for Ontario teams, and how excited you should be for the four trophy teams.
The Uteck Bowl is the eastern-most semifinal. The Mitchell Bowl is the western-most. Who hosts, and who goes on the road are points of contention. Should U Sports, and the conferences, re-align in a way that creates a central Canada-centric national tournament where the Vanier Cup could come down to two archrivals, such as les mastodontes du Québec, Montréal Carabins, and the Laval Rouge et Or? Prob-ab-ly.
The survivor from Montréal and Laval’s annual autumnal best-of-3 will go to western Canada. Canada West always has a wild conference playoff and presents a solid entrant for the final four. In terms of Vanier Cup-winning teams since Laval earned its first postseason berth in 1998? Canada West trails OUA, 5-3.3
The imagination lighter, though, is the possible Southern Ontario-southern Québec matchup in the semifinal. It has not happened in 30 years, since Laval was still laying their groundwork.4
Come Nov. 16, the rep from OUA (Ontario conf.) will visit the best of AUS (Atlantic). They might be rerouted to the Eastern Townships in Québec. A fellow purple horde, the Bishop’s Gaiters from little Lennoxville, Que., are undefeated. The semifinal could have Laurier, and OUA-leading passer Elgersma. It could also have the Gaiters and, Justin Quirion, their QB of promise.
Whoever wins that Uteck Bowl — as long as it is not soulless Western; pas désolé! — will have that chip. It is often worn by QMJHL teams at hockey’s Memorial Cup. They believe their region is disrespected by Ontario and the West. It need not be true. And, one supposes, it can show up in a national championship game in men’s university basketball, or Unibball. Good one, Laval!
Still stings, eh?
The Mitchell Bowl winner will come into Kingston wearing a strong braid. Montréal, coached by Danny Maciocia, won their second Vanier Cup at Richardson Stadium last season. Laval and head coach Glen Constantin could roll in looking to make it an even dozen Vanier titles across the past 25 seasons.
A Canada West team that stops them cold — whoa. That team will feel like they slayed a dragon. Maybe that team is the current first-place Manitoba Bisons, trying to send off 50-year coach Brian Dobie into retirement as a champion.
In that scenario, though, a Canada West Laval/Montréal Slayer… against Laurier, playing somewhat close to home? Do not be so sure. Remember 2005, same semifinal bracket, Ontario-Atlantic, Québec-Canada West. That was when Michael Faulds was a rookie QB at Western.
In the western semi, the Saskatchewan Huskies beat Laval in an instant classic, stopping the try for a game-tying two-point convert in the final seconds in front of a TSN audience. That set up a West vs. Ontario Vanier in Hamilton, about 75 km from Laurier’s field.
The message board talk, which was at its Peak of being a Thing, was all about how Saskatchewan had dethroned Laval. It was as if Laurier would start down by three touchdowns. Had Laurier, the season prior, not lost at Laval by four touchdowns in the ’04 semifinal?
Laurier was supposed to have no chance. By the mitts of Luciani, the Devlin was in the details. Laurier people know who that is — and whatthehell that might mean. The story of that ’05 Vanier Cup is left to another day, although you can cue up the good stuff at 2:08:37.
It would be something if Faulds, Elgersma, and the Golden Hawks offensive brain trust have to plot a winning strategy toward that particular end zone. The opponent, the time and score, those can be shaded in later. For now, those do not matter.
It was all just casing, anyway, wrapping around the meats and veggies.
So what is the big idea…?
Keep a football diary, some Sunday night/Monday morning slotbacking, over the next little while. No one writes what they saw anymore. It far too often is about reacting and chasing clicks. The desire is to just folklorin’ around with the football, tracking bits of ‘Fan Zen.’ For the time being, it will be a bit about the Canadian university game, and relating it to that Jesus-big U.S. college football.
Being from the Kingston-and-Napanee area originally, a media type and Queen’s alumnus — their unofficial motto is Never surrender; we will win one whenever, is good coding for this wordplay. The Queen’s Golden Gaels were the magnet when I was steelily trying to learn football as an adolescent and young person who did not have opportunities to play.
The Gaels embody the Rivalry, singular, in competitive sport. All need to be understood as who prioritizes Well-Resourced versus Wily ’n’ Resourceful. It is coded into everything. Of course, it takes a healthy budget to win. If anything, your favourite teams should get more resources, but do not be selfish about it, there is a climate emengency happening.
Since the Gaels are a hometown team, they are the Scottish-Canadian football avatar. They present differently, think differently, and expose bigger-budgeted Marmalards. They are football men, raised and edified by co-conspiring with smart and strong women. That is why they wear yellow and call themselves Gaels.
They hit the field like this every week. No other team in footballdom wears head-to-toe gold, away and at home.
It also feels like a good time to speak up for a great game whose media relevance has tumbled into Lake Ontario like an eroding bluff. It has been off English-language sports networks for six years, and not just since these conglomerates can count gambling spon-con as Canadian content.
There is Origin Story, and Lore Keeping. The history of Laurier head coach Michael Faulds and one end zone at an away stadium is part of that.
Anyone who coached, played, or followed the game will be portrayed warmly and positively. Each week, I’ll lead in with a riff relating to the Canadian game — outer casing. Then talk about 5-7 storylines in Canada, and five teams on the U.S. side who might crash the party in the new 12-team College Football Playoff and realignment.
Who will be CFParty Crashers? Teams that are not college football bluebloods, if they make their own luck by taking a Desperate Hockey approach to every game, might sneak into the Playoff. That means non-majors outside the Power 4 (Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Big 12) and teams that usually peak around third or fourth place in those conferences.
Overall record, conference affiliation, and their last result in brackets.
die ‘Fan Zen’ fünfzehn: Canada
No. 5 Bishop’s Gaiters (7-0 AUS, W 29-18 at Acadia)
Bishop’s, and Quirion, have been taking the Maritimes teams’ best shots each week and punching back just enough. Sometimes it is just enough to win each week.
The upshot is (a) the Gaiters have not and (b) since AUS has a bye to the final, and its champion hosts the Uteck, the Gaiters have a clearer path to the Vanier Cup than anyone else. They just have to win two home games in a potential rabid fan environment. Québec biker gangs may no longer be around to show up like they did 30-some seasons ago, but going to Lennoxville (pop. 5,800) is a new one for OUA teams.
Drawing Bishop’s in a national playoff is an exercise in fear of the unknown. In 2015, th men’s basketball Gaiters had a sub-.500 record, won the Québec conference, and had Ottawa dead-to-rights in a quarterfinal in downtown Toronto. It was a purple takeover of the basketball arena.
The Gaiters have a fine football culture as the little English-lang university in rural southern Québec. The Gaiters’ stock in the recruiting trade is coaxing small-town kids at heart to wear purple.
They were a conference confrère of the Gaels from the mid-1970s to the 2000s. Both got each other’s goat plenty. Both had a grass field that could get suspiciously soggy when fall rains fell and the other side was built around a speedy rushing attack. There was also a bit recognition-of-self. Queen’s recruited a lot in Québec. The Gaiters had a good pipeline into south east Ontario.
The greatest Gaiter is Larry Smith. As CFL commissioner in the ’90s, the U.S. expansion was his brainchild. It was never supposed to work. The CFL needed some liquidity and some life in its legs — it had one national sponsor. Collecting franchise fees and having Doug Flutie saved the CFL, and brought back the Montréal Alouettes.
Another Gaiter great is Canadian football hall-of-fame rush end Leroy Blugh, from Napanee, Ont.; that is also my birthplace. To know that legend … at Bishop’s going up against Queen’s, in the era of Lawrence Taylor and Andre Tippett, Blugh was also a fearsome linebacker wearing No. 56 and altering blocking rules and schemes. And he was such a mobile and nimble big man that he played centrefield and shortstop the North Fredericksburg Kings, two-time Canadian junior men’s fastpitch champions.
Bishop’s has strong roots stretching from southeast Ontario to the Maritimes. A pass-catching proof of that is Oliver Burnett, the Gaiters’ No. 1 receiver by yards per game.
His parents, mum Cynthia and namesake dad Oliver, are Gaiters alumni from back in the ’90s. Cynthia Burnett (née Hitchcock) was a 5-foot-4 guard — short in female hoops even then. However, a quick bio check shows she went to Fredericton HS, the largest high school in Canada, which presumably has a lot of tall kids for basketball.
The previous Oliver Burnett was Bishop’s leading rusher when they operated the wing-T under the late great coach Ian Breck. Part of his backstory was that he had Kingston roots and had been a ballboy for the Gaels. Either way, the Gaiters were down then, but managed to win their last three conference games against Queen’s before they parted ways.
That included a big game when Bishop’s won by three TDs at Queen’s Homecoming in 2000. The elder Burnett flipped over the goal line after fourth-quarter house call — just desserts for a former ball boy.
No. 9 Manitoba Bisons (6-1 CW, W 38-37-OT at Alberta) / No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds (5-2 CW, W 21-5 vs. Calgary)
The Bisons are overdoing plot with a retirement send-off for Dobie.
They got the drop on UBC with a 23-point Week 2 win at Point Grey in September. Since then, they have been an escape room in the form of a football team, and wouldn’t you know that boundary-breaking kicker Maya Turner, forced overtime at the 59:59 mark of their comeback win at Alberta.
The perfect metaphor for B.C. politics and its only university football team? The Thunderbirds, with zero fumbles, won a football game played in an “atmospheric river” the same day several climate change deniers were elected to the British Columbia legislature.5
Those are not separate. The distinction is about the easy answers and the simplicity. In football, those only come after a lot of work, and nothing should be regarded as a complete accident. Teams work to have the ready answer when it matters.
The great Howard Tsumura described UBC’s game as a tilt taken down to the studs of “(the) basics of tackling and running the football.”6 The UBC rushers, receivers, and returners had 57 touches, and did not fumble the slippery rock, with Isaiah Knight getting 27 touches for 160 rushing-receiving yards. And QB Garrett Rooker was soaked, but never sacked.
The problem in Canada’s electoral politics, and a lot of places’, is when bad-faith candidates are comprised entirely of simplicity and easy answers. It is also laced with fear and paranoia and all sorts of pandering to the ’Phobes. Ugly, ugly nativism.
From four provinces over, British Columbia contains a myriad of microclimates that consist largely of Fire Season and Flood Season. Voting for any Conservative party too craven or cynical to tell the truth about the climate emergency is self-spiting. We are better than that.
And it does tie into football. The preference here is UBC will be able to continue to play, and football requires, among other resources, clean air, potable water, and fewer wildfires.
Anyway, there is a top-of-table potential Hardy Trophy preview this weekend with UBC at Manitoba. No one is ever sitting pretty in Canada West. By the math, UBC would have to win by 24 points to get first place. That cannot be completely ruled out.
The Bisons (W 38-37 at Alberta)
They play Catch-Up and Cliffhanger pretty well. At Alberta, the Bisons trailed by 26 points with 20½ minutes of Football left. The Jackson Tachinski-led offence had yet to score a TD. So, of course they rallied to win, by scoring on 5 of their last 7 drives, and Tachinski aced both must-have two-point convert tries, including the game-winner to AK Gassama in OT.
All in a day in the football life of Dobie. All in a D’oh for Alberta, presumably. This skim of the boxscore is a modern art masterpiece.7
Down four scores midway through the third period, the Bisons shift to three-down football. It fails the first time, but Dobie has made a football life helping people make good on second chances. The second time, on third-and-5, Gassama scored a 33-yard receiving TD. Nothing for Alberta to worry about, since they are ahead by 20 after the two-point convert pass fails./
Each team punts twice in a row. Then Lamar Goods, the Bisons D-lineman from Fort McMurray, Alta., by way of the Florida Gators, kindles something by forcing a fumble in Alberta’s zone. Three Tachinski chain-moving plays and a TD later, Alberta leads by just 13 with 6:57 left in the game. Still good, Alberta!
Unpack a collapse in Canadian football and it usually contains this type of play-by-play data. A special teams foul-up: “Ben George kickoff 64 yards to the ALB1, Duncan Critch return 17 yards to the ALB18, PENALTY ALB illegal block 10 yards to the ALB8, 1st and 10, ALB ball on ALB8.”
Son of a Critch… I should watch that show.
Penalties happen. Gamifying can be thought out. With a two-touchdown lead against an opponent who is kicking off deep, just let the ball bounce into the end zone for the single. A 12-point lead has no material difference from 13. The 27-yard difference between where the penalty left Alberta, and the start of a new possession after a single, was very material. The special teams unit’s face should be rouge.Anyway, Alberta is still golden. They use 90 seconds before taking an intentional safety (30-19 lead). So giving up one point on the kickoff is a no-no, but giving up two is fine, even though now it gives Manitoba to tie through the combo of an octopus touchdown8 + field goal?
Sounds like the new Alberta math curriculum! Hey, still up by 5:27 to go. Still good, Alberta! And Premier Danielle Smith is a peerless leader with a good centrist head on her shoulders.Just the facts: Tachinski is 5-of-5 passing on the next drive, plus the pass for the deuce. The Bisons get said octopus touchdown before reaching the 2½-minutes mark. Alberta is still up by 3, 2:39 left. Aucun problème!
The Golden Bears start playing to win, based on this line of PBP: “Cade Labrecque pass complete to Kolby Hurford for 42 yards to the MAN39, 1ST DOWN ALB (Jake Nitychoruk).” Going long is never wrong. One first down will ensure the W.
Counter: Bisons veteran Stephen Adamopoulos, a Winnipegger, gets in on two firm two tackles. Alberta is in third-and-8 at the MAN37 with 1:42 on the clock.
Whaddya do? The brassy play, since one first down gets the W, is to try for that first down. Or punt, possibly from a non-punt formation, to try to back Manitoba inside its 10-yard line. The Bisons would need to match or exceed their longest drive to give Maya Turner her shot to send’er to OT. That punt might also roll for a single and four-point lead, meaning Manitoba would need another 75-yard touchdown drive to beat you.
Or — or! — try a 44-yard field goal for the six-point cushion. If it misses, it is just as good as a punt, right? Well, no. Off the miss, Gassama returns out to the 27, which is just 10 yards shy of the previous line of scrimmage.So now Manitoba has a slew of time, 1:28, to tie or win the game. Tachinski connects with receivers thrice in a row, and has a first-down run where he gets out of bounds to stop the block. They play for the field goal, maybe, since this is a good sim for Turner, who will be needed in the playoffs. She nails the equalizer, a 23-yarder, with 1 second left.
And, hey, Alberta, congrats for coming from so far ahead to take the first-placed team to overtime. Overtime in the CFL and Canadian university leagues has the offences start at the plus-35. Alberta retakes the lead!
Of course, Manitoba covers the yardage exclusively on the ground. Tachinski and Gassama connect on the winning two-pointer. Scene.
The UBC T-Birds (W 21-5 vs. Calgary)
They are on a 5-win streak since that Manitoba loss on Sept. 6. That seems good. The playmakers — Knight, QB Garrett Rooker, D-lineman Aiden Bertuzzi — are generally the same from the ahead-of-schedule Vanier contender from ’23.
However, there is a 30-seasons-plus trend that teams that successfully defend their Hardy Trophy title-winner thesis do not win the Vanier Cup. That seems bad.
The trend stretches through 11 teams who ran it back in at Canada West, starting from the 1991 Saskatchewan Huskies. It is a grueling league. Seems ominous, but you did say it is a grueling league.
This requires a table that UBC can break like it was on Monday Night Raw. The last team to win Canada West one season, then win the Vanier Cup the next season are the 1989-90 Saskatchewan Huskies.
Now, now, it could be different. These Thunderbirds are balling out since the 0-2 start, and through the climate change-intensified torrential rains.
Rooker has no end of complements who are dangerous when they get into space. Bertuzzi and defensive leaders such as Jaxon Ciroalo-Brown and Mitchell Townsend show up when and where you expect them to in the PBP data.
If they win the Hardy Trophy, well, that elongates the Mitchell Bowl trip by about 2,300 km for the Laval/Montréal victor.d
No. 1 Montréal Carabins (7-1 RSEQ, W 33-3 at Concordia)
No touchdowns allowed, and no points for the last 3½ quarters against Concordia might set a tone for the playoffs. Or so an unsolicited hype person might hope.
The Carabins, by the numbers, have not been as defensively dominant as the ’23 crew. They were a hard act to follow. Shades of “La Force de la Montagne” showed up in their last outing before bye week, and the playoffs. Hybrid defender Nicolas Roy tucked away an interception-return touchdown, and Mathis Bérubé also made an INT to create a short field.
This iteration of Montréal has not put up dominant numbers, but they are the champs until they lose in the playoffs. The two-game Cup tie with Laval ended deadlocked 54-54, with a split of one-point decisions. McGill put up 28 points on Oct. 4.
The last three games, Les Bleus have occasionally opened the throttle.
Oct. 4, W 38-28 vs. McGill: A slow start, compounded by a fumbled punt return, gave the Redbirds a chance to open a 3-score lead at halftime. Their offence got a sudden change at the 21-yard line, 1:57 from halftime, already up by 11.
The Carabins saw McGill’s house money and created an 11-point swing. After a field goal, Jonathan Senacal ran a one-minute drill, linking with Enrique Jaimes Leclair for a 45-yard reception to set up a TD. That was the start of an ‘okay, McGill, you had your fun’ 32-0 run. That must have been some halftime dialogue.Oct. 12, W 32-31 vs. Laval: Senecal, et al., averaged 7.7 yards per play during their second go-’round against the Rouge et Or, when breaks in coverage should be harder to come by. Receiver Lucas Dembele accounted for the major acquisitions during second-half drives where Montréal travelled 92 and 90 yards in just a handful of plays. Dembele adds dimension, since he is listed as a running back.
Oct. 18, W 33-3 at Concordia: If Montréal is beginning a new touchdown freeze, circle the goal-line stand at the end of the first half.
The game was well in hand at 30-3, but Concordia opted for QB Olivier Roy, et al., to go for the touchdown on third-and-goal from the five-yard line. Roy rushed, and Nicolas Roy and linebacker Charles-Elliot Bouiliane tackled him at the 1-yard line. So, Concordia fought the good fight, and Montréal held firm against it. In a sense, that «football gagnant», although in another sense, Montréal won by 30.
No. 4 Laval Rouge et Or (6-1 RSEQ, W 30-17 vs. McGill)
How sustainable is it to rely on DSTs, defensive and special teams touchdowns? Laval needed two for their winning margin against McGill. Billy Jonas Pernier burned and weaved for a 99-yard kickoff return touchdown late in the third quarter, and Laval cinched the win by blocking a punt and recovering the ball for a TD.
McGill possessed the ball for two-thirds of the game and lost. Oh, McGill. Come re-form the old O-QIFC, already.9
Hey, Ontario (OUA) has a triumvirate of quarterfinals this week! Preview them in a paragraph, ’K!
— Ed.
5@4: Queen’s at Windsor (4 p.m., OUA TV)
Gotta good feeling the will be won by a blue-gold team whose markings include shaky passing games, a feeling like that 5-3 record should have been more, and a head coach who was on the staff of the 2017 Vanier-winning Western powerhouse. Those four facts are true-blue of both the host Lancers and the travelling Gaels.
Ours is not to say who Windsor coach Jean-Paul Circelli or Queen’s coach Steve Snyder should put behind centre. Jessthefax, though: the Lancers were 11th, or last, in OUA in passing. Corson Roy started to work in more ahead of Danny Skelton.
Queen’s has the second-least effective pass game among OUA playoff teams. Anthony Lio wears none of the responsibility pie for the four INTs Queen’s threw at Windsor on Aug. 24. He did not play.
Windsor has lost 3-in-a-row on the bounce. Their two wins over fellow playoff teams were both by less than a TD and at home. Queen’s also has two tight home wins vs. playoff teams, and 28-point win at Ottawa on their shortest road trip. Windsor is their longest road trip, and they their losses to the purple powers were by a combined 90-35. Then again, if they were breaking Lio in behind centre, what could have been expected?
The rules says someone has to win, and head to Laurier on Nov. 2.
6@3: Ottawa at Guelph (1 p.m., OUA TV)
This is a good game to since it is a matchup of strangers, with odd-to-outsiders name. The Gee-Gees, for the first time in their second Marcel Bellefeuille era, are rolling into into the Gryphons’ Alumni Stadium — great place to see a game, and right by a GO Station if you feel threatened by a good time. The two teams missed each other on the reg-season docket, and Ottawa has not made that trip since pre-COVID.
However, both have the suspect split. In OUA, you can look good on paper by winning out against the left-out-of-playoffs teams, and splitting against better competition. It is called Form 4022. Or do the palindrome of 4-0/0-4.
The Gryphons core group, with Montrealer QB Tristan Aboud, did the former. Ottawa, who saw 6-foot-6 Josh Janssen emerge as their passer, did the latter.
There is no promise of anything but a good time and three hours late under October sunshine. Guelph has had two weeks to prepare. Head coach Mark Surya, one of the 2009 Gaels, seems to havve a team of promise. They essentially have had a bye, since they were idle for Week 9.
Guelph stayed within a single-digits margin for the entire game againsst Laurier, and had more total offence. Pas désolé, while Western might do that yet against Laurier in 2024, no one has done so yet.
7@2: McMaster at Western (1 p.m., OUA TV)
Assign a Relevance Score, between 1 and 100, to the fact that, in the last Yates Cup of the Before Times, the Marauders beat the Mustangs by two touchdowns in London in 2019. Same coaches, same venue, so much different.
If you are up to it, do the same for the 2011 Yates. That also had the the same head coaches, and the same team making the 130-km trip, where McMaster led by as much as 38 points and went to win a Vanier. This quarterfinal has the same HCs, Western’s Greg Marshall and McMaster’s Stef Ptaszek. Some other things have changed.
Here in the now, Western Football is octupling down on playing Western Football, and just typing that causes drowsiness. The odds are -150000 that they want to establish the run. Evan Hillock, the QB, is a fourth-year. Let him cook!
McMaster has a great name guy! Malik Boult is their team sack leader. Quarterback Keagan Hall was high-up in the passing tables. They are also a grocery stick team, who did not beat a single playoff team.
What about Western? Well, they still scored a lot of points against everyone.
Time to talk about some teams down south.
South of the border: a Rocco Becht state of mind
No. 10 Iowa State Cyclones (7-0 / 4-0 Big 12, W 38-35 vs. Cent. Fla.)
Rocco Becht brought Iowa State back in the final minute-47 by running the Jake Johnson Play (JJP).
This rises or falls on where you know actor Jake Johnson from — being Nick Miller on New Girl, voice of Peter B Parker/Spiderman in the Spiderverse movie, or his podcast “We’re Here To Help.”
The JJP is needed when a team is in a touchdown-to-win, no-timeouts scenario. Iowa State ended up there against Central Florida.
On the shotgun snap, pass protection crumbles and two or three pass rushers get through. The QB has to run back through the pocket, going against the flow like Nick Miller when he makes ‘The Sauce’ and decides it is time to stir it in the other direction.
If he avoids a sack, he then right-turns just shy the line of scrimmage, to have access to either a good receiver or a hope-and-pray-for-pass-interference-heave.
Becht did that three times on the winning drive, twice linking with Jaylin Noel and once for a bailout DPI.10 That accounted for 60 of the 80 yards.
Coming into that do-or-done drive, Hecht and the Iowa State attackers were having a rough one. He was averaging fewer than 4 adjusted yards per attempt, without adding the length of a near-pick-six TD the other way. And yet, since this is college football, and he slightly resembles one of our finest actors, none of this was surprising.
Some Canadian coding in the ’Clones: Bridget Carleton, the Minnesota Lynx hoopster from Chatham, Ont., hooped for the Cyclones. It always comes back to Carleton (and) women’s basketball.
No. 11 Brigham Young Cougars (6-0 / 3-0 Big 12, W 38-35 vs. Oklahoma St.)
The Cougars are the team from a Mormon university that every atheist-pantheist-anarchist fan softspots. Think of who built Las Vegas. It was built for people who believe one or two big strikes is all it takes.
Friday, BYU had 73 seconds to go 75 yards for the winning touchdown. They are not a big passing team. They used up more than half of their allotted time to go a whole 13 yards. Their next two plays that had intention covered the final 62. Jake Retzlaff scrambled and fooled defenders by not going out of bounds, which stops the clock. He kept going until he could slide down in the score zone. On his next competitive pass, he hummed the winning touchdown to nail the ending.
No. 22 SMU Mustangs (6-1 / 3-0 ACC, W 40-10 at Stanford) / No. 5 Texas Longhorns (6-1 / 2-1 SEC, L 15-30 vs. Georgia)
The deathless part of the SMU story is the A Payroll To Meet / Pony Exce$$ legend, how the team from the private university in downtown Dallas was shut down in 1987 for deciding to pay football players, like they should have been from the beginning. There is always some lightly hinted conspiracism that the Texas Longhorns, down in Austin, might have some influence on the NCAA carrying out that Code Red.
Anyway, juxtapose! The Mustangs are having a fine first season in the (uh, OK) ACC. The fanbase travels, the quarterback Kevin Jennings threw TDs of 87, 45, and 38 in the first quarter, and they beat fellow ACC newcomer Stanford by 30 points without “their best performance overall.” Fun, dignified, even humble.
Now, last Saturday ESPN did a “Texas takeout” broadcast revolving around a motorsports race and the Top 5 tilt between Georgia and the Longhorns. There was even a Lakers game-style intro of all the celebrity dudebros assembled, KMatthew McConaughey, Joe Rogan, et cetera. And Texas was quickly down three touchdowns and change faster than you could type the “Jamie, pull that shit up” meme.
The rug-pull was hilarious, and a reminder of what you should never judge a sports competition by national media’s packaging. Or get bothered by national media’s packaging. The proof will show up soon enough.
Texas is still ranked No. 5. But SMU fans are having moJoe RoganJoe Roganre fun.
No. 23 Army Black Knights (7-0 / 6-0 AAC, W 45-28 vs. E. Carolina) & No. 24 Navy Midshipmen (6-0 / 4-0 AAC, W 51-17 vs. Charlotte)
Two service academy teams being undefeated and in the Top 25: self-explanatory! Moving with an option run-based offence is a foundational requirement for Army and Navy, and they are pouring it on. Both still have honorary American Athletic Conference member Notre Dame on their schedule, including Navy heading there this weekend.
Army quarterback Bryson Daily has had at least two rushing touchdowns in 6-of-7 games this seasons. His Navy counterpart, Blake Horvath, has a hockey name and, quite possibly, an NFL arm.
Others can speculate about Army and/or Navy going 13-0. Never say never… anyway, time to outro.
Outro: a deep rewind
Do you know about Queen’s engineers and the banging of the jackets? Or how it is possible to win in overtime a walk-off touchdown by the backup punter-field goal holder?
Ten seasons, or 11 years ago, Michael Faulds was a first-year HC who brought rebuilding Laurier into the old Richardson II to face Queen’s.
The date was Oct. 5, 2013. Standings-wise, Queen’s and Guelph are vying for second place behind youknowwho. Laurier is a one-win team with a young head coach who knows culture is more than the quick W’s.
Faulds is only four years out from playing. Filling big shoes, following Gary Jeffries, who guided Laurier to that perfect season in 2005. Faulds’s legend, at this level, was made well before the ’09 season, when he played with a torn ACL and claimed national records for yards in a season, and in a career.
Due to some sanctions for ever-escalating street parties, Queen’s had not held an official homecoming game since 2008. Some alumni would respond by tagging one game as Fauxcoming and having a small parade around the track during the game, just as a quiet, dignified, respectful pushback.
It came back for 2013, and the Laurier game on Thanksgiving weekend. So, thanks to the gap, Michael Faulds is the opposing QB and opposing head coach in consecutive official Homecoming games — albeit five years apart.
Faulds is, unfailingly, described as a student of the game who appreciates the Queen’s thing. He knows engineering students at Queen’s, at a big campus event, take their jackets off and whapp them against the asphalt, against the ground, any hard surface. It is an impressive sound, and nothing deeper needs to be read of it. Like most Queen’s things, it is part of a quiet con. What does it mean? Nothing, other than it sounds awesome.
When there is a Homecoming game, they will do on the field at halftime.
It is good nonsense. So, at halftime, instead of taking his team to the dressing room, Faulds, as the great Kingston sportswriter Claude Scilley later notes, has his young team stay out to take in this uniquely Canadian scene. He explains, to Claude, that he wants the players to understand what they are part of by playing football at this level in this country. Just because it’s not getting big-time media play, it doesn’t mean there are not traditions passed from one era of students to another.
Laurier rallies, and forces overtime. They get to go first in the overtime, and get blanked. So Queen’s can win with any score. A couple rushes set up Dillon Wamsley to try the field goal, and Aaron Gazendam is pinch-holding. The regular holder, Justin Chapdelaine, is not playing due to an injury.
And it all happens so fast. The Laurier block team comes up and sends the kick back from whence it came. In one motion, though, Gazendam has a learned reaction from a game where every kick is onside, a retained keepsake from football’s roots in Rugby League.
He pooch-punts the ball into the end zone, where Laurier does not have a player who can run or punt the ball out of the area. On the video, you can hear a knowledgeable fan who recognizes what “Gaz” is up to. He runs down and covers the ball for the winning touchdown.
All legal, all in-bounds, and one for the books.11
Later, it seems significant the overtime seesh was toward the north end zone. At Richardson 2.0 (1971-2015), that end zone was part of the Gaels’ quiet cons. It was the end zone closer to the visiting team’s bench area. So, in warm-ups before a 1 p.m. kickoff, they might be extra sensitive to winds coming off of Lake Ontario, and choose accordingly at the coin toss. And Queen’s people would know that the wind usually dies down over the course of the afternoon.
Similarly, on bright days, the scoreboard at that end could be nigh impossible to read. It usually was not a big deal. Most football Saturdays in Kingston seemed to be grey.
That north end zone, and Faulds. In that 2008 Western-Queen’s game, the Mustangs were making most of the gains and the Gaels were getting all the bounces. As halftime neared, Western was moving toward that north goal and possible points to get back into the game.
Faulds tried to complete throw deep to the right, and if memory serves, Alex Daprato intercepted. He returned it 96 yards in front of the teeming, pulsating student section, almost for a touchdown. Queen’s offence capitalized almost immediately, and the Gaels were well en route to a 43-23 win.
The year after, came the all-timer. Queen’s 43, Western 39, in a seven-lead-change Yates Cup that Gaels types would never have lived down if they had lost.
The only QB matchup in this great game’s history where both fifth-year quarterbacks entered with over 10,000 regular-season yards, and both passed for more than 500. Western and Faulds, Queen’s and Danny Brannagan, and Faulds playing with that torn ACL.
The knee problem which had Faulds passing exclusively from the shotgun, came into play when it was 36-36 in the fourth quarter. Western’s Nick Trevail was in the end zone when he laid out on a corner route, but he completed the catch in the field of play. Western had first-and-goal from the 1-yard line, and kicked a field goal. It is a game of inches.
Later, after Scott Valberg caught his second go-ahead touchdown of the second half, Faulds essayed one last great moment.
On Western’s last-ditch drive, the knee went out. Somehow he limped back on for when it was third down and a kilometre. As Tim Micallef said, he can’t even drop.
And somehow got free from Queen’s rush end Shomari Williams to throw the ball with heat and hope. Williams merely had 3½ sacks the next week when Queen’s beat Laval, and who went No. 1 overall in the following spring’s CFL Draft.
It’s a different Richardson Stadium, with turf instead of grass. However, this is an infinite game, where the pieces just get set up to try again.
So, if there is any symbolism, 14 seasons/15 years later, Laurier and Faulds will be going for that end zone when they need it on Nov. 23. Sometimes the right team wins on the day, and what is right comes a while later.
Afterword
I know this is wordy, and long. What I hope for, is if you are working sports media in Canada, and part of coverage for university sports, pull some details and do an in-depth article. There is always more going on at this level than might be apparent.
That is more than enough for now. Please stay safe, and be kind, especially to yourself.
Oct. 17-20, 2024
Hamilton, Ont. : traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas
In the 2014 season, the Guelph Gryphons scored 100 points in two wins against Western in a span of four football Saturdays. First came a 49-46 regular-season win, followed by a 51-26 rout in the OUA semifinal stage, where a running back, Rob Farquharson, had 25 rushes for 232 yards.
The week following, though? The McMaster Marauders, who Ferguson quarterbacked, beat Guelph for the Yates Cup. They scored zero offensive touchdowns. D-lineman Mike Kashak read a screen pass, intercepted the ball and housed the return. Defenders Allan Dicks and Joey Cupido each nicked two interceptions.
Since you asked, starting from most recent. Canada West: 2019 Calgary, 2015 UBC, ’07 Manitoba. And OUA? 2021 Western, ’17 Western, 2011 McMaster, ’09 Queen’s, and ’05 Laurier. Current OUA footballers Ottawa won the 2000 Vanier while in the late Ontario-Québec conference (O-QIFC).
Timeline. Laval, in 1992, announced it would launch a football team structured like a Canadian Hockey League club. They played an exhibition season in 1995. In 1996, they played their first season. In 1999, their first winning season was their first Vanier Cup season.
Howard Tsumura, “On a night the heavens open up, UBC’s back-to-basics excellence tops Calgary as part of a ‘perfect storm’ at Thunderbird Stadium!” Varsity Letters, Oct. 18.
Ibid.
Source: Canada West.
A touchdown followed by a two-point convert (or conversion in the U.S.), worth a combined eight points (6 + 2).
Defensive pass interference, which is a maximum 15-yard penalty in the NCAA and Canadian amateur football. It is a spot foul in the NFL and CFL.
Neate Sager, “Queen’s Golden Gaels win homecoming game on freaky, heads-up play,” Eh Game, Oct. 6, 2013.